Wrong-way warnings are going up on U.S. 281

TxDOT says 15-mile corridor had highest number of reported wrong-way drivers last year.

Updated 11:26 pm, Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Nearly 10 months after an intoxicated wrong-way driver killed San Antonio Police Officer Stephanie Brown, the state is about to install detectors and signs on U.S. 281 to warn motorists when they are driving the wrong way.

Starting in late February, the radar detectors and illuminated wrong-way signs will be installed on 32 exit ramps on U.S. 281 between Interstate 35 and Stone Oak Parkway, and also at four locations along the highway.

The 15-mile corridor had the highest number of reported wrong-way drivers last year, TxDOT said.

The radar detectors will sound an alarm at the Department of Transportation TransGuide office once a wrong-way vehicle is identified. The information will be relayed to both TransGuide officials and to SAPD dispatchers in the TransGuide office, alerting them to the location.

The detectors and signage are the latest of several local efforts to tackle drunken driving since Brown's death March 15, when Christopher Baldaramos crashed into her patrol car on Interstate 35 near McCullough after a long night spent drinking with friends.

The collision killed both Brown and Baldaramos, whose blood-alcohol level when he died was nearly 0.24 — three times the legal limit.

Brown, only 27 when she died, left behind a 1-year-old daughter. The officer was one of seven people killed in wrong-way crashes last year.

For her mother, the news about the new detection and signage system brought a small bit of hope.

“I know there's never going to be a perfect solution,” Shawn Brown said. “I think this is at least a step in the right direction. At least someone will know somebody is going the wrong way. Whether or not they are able to stop them in time is another story.”

Since Brown's death, TransGuide has started recording all wrong-way driving incidents, even if they did not result in a crash.

In May, TransGuide started to use its highway message signs to alert motorists about possible wrong-way drivers in the area. TransGuide operators alerted law enforcement about 15 wrong-way drivers, all of whom were stopped before a crash occurred.

“All we can do is see what happens and hope we truly see a change in the numbers,” she said.

TransGuide operators recorded 185 wrong-way drivers in the San Antonio area in 2011 and police received 385 calls reporting wrong-way drivers.

Most of the wrong-way drivers involved in crashes were intoxicated or thought to be so, TxDOT said.

Fariello said TxDOT hopes to launch a similar detection system along I-35 near downtown, between U.S. 90 and Interstate 37, in about six months. That stretch of road has had the highest reported wrong-way crashes in the San Antonio area, he said.

Shawn Brown wonders if the detection systems could have saved her daughter's life, had they been in place nearly a year ago.

She mourns the relationship Brown never will have with her own daughter, Audrey, who turns 2 in less than two months.

Now, Audrey doesn't ask for her mother. But she knows her face and kisses every photo of Brown.

“I look at her daughter, I just feel that she ought to be here to see her grow,” Shawn Brown said. “It saddens me that just a routine call ended in such disaster, because of something that didn't have to happen.”